Gluten sensitivity

04-08-2008, 11:00 AM

We are exclusively BFing and dealing with food sensitivities. DS is one month old today and we've been having crying episodes that last for about three hours in the evening, right around bed time. My other DC have had sensitive tummies so I had to eliminate various food types from my diet. With this one I just went ahead and cut out dairy, eggs, beans, acidic foods and gassy veggies from my diet preemptively but we still have problems. After several attempts at finding the culprit food, I've discovered my little guy is having a gluten problem. Ohmygoodness, it didn't occur to me how much of my diet contains gluten until I tried to eliminate it. At the moment I'm living on raw fruits and veggies and unprocessed organic meat. The meat part is getting pricey and I'm burning out quickly on this limited diet. I haven't had much of a chance to sit down and research alternatives to gluten so I thought I'd check in here to find out if anyone else has had similar problems and if so, what did you do? TIA

my son is on a GF/CF diet, so i make a lot of things from scratch using GF flour. you can use almost anything as a substitute. our health food store has a whole aisle dedicated to GF cooking/baking. i mostly use rice flour, but have also subbed buckwheat flour and bob's red mill all-purpose GF flour. you can make pancakes, cakes, cookies, breads, etc. you'd just have to make sure you're not using any other offending foods on your strict diet. you can also find gluten-free pastas and throw in veggies to make a nice dish.

my son is on a GF/CF diet, so i make a lot of things from scratch using GF flour. you can use almost anything as a substitute. our health food store has a whole aisle dedicated to GF cooking/baking. i mostly use rice flour, but have also subbed buckwheat flour and bob's red mill all-purpose GF flour. you can make pancakes, cakes, cookies, breads, etc. you'd just have to make sure you're not using any other offending foods on your strict diet. you can also find gluten-free pastas and throw in veggies to make a nice dish.

HTH!

Thanks! I can't tell you how disheartened I was when I discovered how much of my food contains gluten. Yikes! I sure hope this works. It tears me up when the little guy is in so much pain.

I checked out the gluten-free section of our grocery store and found various types of flour. I looked up some bread recipes online and discovered they call for two or three different types of flour. Is it possible to bake bread with only one kind of flour? And what is xanthum gum for? I feel a little lost in this gluten-free sea.

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i'm not sure if you can bake bread w/only one type of flour. it may turn out pretty dense. i'd recommend getting a gluten-free all-purpose flour for that. but i know cakes, cookies, and pancakes can use just one kind.

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I checked out the gluten-free section of our grocery store and found various types of flour. I looked up some bread recipes online and discovered they call for two or three different types of flour. Is it possible to bake bread with only one kind of flour? And what is xanthum gum for? I feel a little lost in this gluten-free sea.

The xanthan gum helps replicate (a little) the binding that gluten does in other grains. It's often necessary for breads, but not so necessary for really eggy things like brownies.

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We use Pamela' s pancake/waffle mix for everything..it is GF and it makes great zuchini bread, muffins, cookies, and it is already mixed so no trying to re-invent the wheel with it
Works for us anyway
For those of you wo LOVE to bake the the sorghum flour (jowar) or tapioca flour can work well too.

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Big huge hugs to you as you make this transition. My son was recently diagnosed with Celiac's and a casein sensitivity, so we're are GFCF here, too.

For just starting out, I suggest buying premixed flours and goods. I found it way too overwhelming to try and make everything from scratch in the beginning. As you go on and get used to the diet change, then start experimenting with different flours. Pretty soon, you'll have it all figured out and be an old pro!

We love the Pamela mixes, Bob's Red Mill pancake mix, all purpose flour mix and Enjoy life products. They even have chocolate chips that actually taste like chocolate chips! Wylde pretzels are pretty good, too. If you eat cereal, Envirokidz is yummy.

Be careful of hidden gluten in foods. I've had to spend lots of time on the phone with manufacturers verifying food ingredients. b/c of unclear wording.